Wireless speaker assemblies are generally known in the art. Wireless speaker assemblies are used in a variety of different applications such as in a high-end, in-home wireless audio system that eliminates the need to hide unsightly wires within walls and ceilings. Another application is in the form of a portable audio system that can be easily moved from location to location and used with portable, hand-held devices such as smartphones that play music, or other portable audio devices, etc.
A traditional wireless speaker assembly may include a plurality of speakers, a base unit and other possible audio components that are operably connected wirelessly via a dedicated wireless network. In such systems, WiFi (e.g., wireless local area network products) signals travel from speaker-to-speaker so that information is communicated from one speaker to another in operation of the system. To assure proper communication between speakers and overall operation, the WiFi signals must be of sufficient strength so that the signals can be effectively transmitted to a receiving speaker. It is understood that other wireless communication signals are possible such as Bluetooth or other radio frequencies.
The speakers of the wireless speaker assembly typically include a speaker grill positioned over the internal components of the speaker. Speaker grills are typically made of metal and have a plurality of tightly-spaced miniature holes that pass through the speaker grill. In order for speaker grills to include holes of such a small diameter (e.g., between 0.30 mm and 1.20 mm), a small center-to-center pitch spacing (between 0.50 mm and 1.50 mm) and thin part thickness (between 0.40 mm and 3.0 mm) is required. To achieve such an intricate structure, metal speaker grills are typically printed and the holes are created by a chemical etching process. Because of their metal construction, speaker grills can interfere with the transmission and reception of the WiFi signals in wireless speaker assemblies. This interference can adversely affect the performance of the speaker including sound quality or the ability to project any audio. When signal interference is present, individual speakers of the wireless speaker assemblies must then be placed in closer proximity to one another to provide adequate performance.
It would be beneficial for the speaker grills to be made of non-metal materials such as plastic. A plastic speaker grill would minimize potential signal interference, thereby improving the performance of the wireless speaker assembly. Individual speakers could then be placed farther apart from one another. However, plastic speaker grills having such intricate constructions, including the tightly-spaced miniature holes, have not been able to be manufactured.
While, according to the prior art, wireless speaker assemblies provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. The present invention is provided to overcome certain of these limitations and other drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.